CAPHRA denounces WHO's stance on e-cigarettes as scandalous

The Asia Pacific advocates for reducing tobacco harm alliance (CAPHRA) recently released a press statement in which they criticized the World Health Organization's (WHO) latest "Questions and Answers" section on their international website, describing it as a complete scandal.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised a crucial question: "Are electronic cigarettes more or less harmful than traditional tobacco?" In response, the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) has emphasized that based on scientific evidence regarding the relative safety of electronic cigarettes, WHO's answer should have been "less harmful". However, WHO has grouped electronic cigarettes and traditional cigarettes together, claiming that "both cigarettes and electronic cigarettes pose a threat to health, and the safest option is to use neither.

According to Lucas, "If you're a smoker who is determined to quit at all costs, you're likely to continue smoking. The World Health Organization refuses to differentiate between e-cigarette users and smokers. At best, it completely misses the point. More importantly, it perpetuates one falsehood after another.

In fact, the World Health Organization has even raised the question of whether electronic cigarettes are more dangerous than traditional cigarettes, which is a shame. Rather than acknowledging the repeated scientific findings that electronic cigarettes are much less harmful than traditional cigarettes, the WHO has failed to give a simple answer," she added.

At the same time, a new study launched at the 9th Global Nicotine Forum (GFN22) has once again shown that the implementation of the World Health Organization's tobacco control measures (known as MPOWER) has no correlation with lower tobacco-related mortality rates in Europe. Independent research was also shared at the event, indicating that switching from smoking to Swedish-style snus has been proven to be an effective strategy for reducing tobacco harm.

Similarly, a recent 59-page white paper discussed several case studies conducted by countries to measure progress related to smoking cessation. The white paper indicated that countries following World Health Organization guidelines are still struggling with high smoking rates.

The publication titled "Electronic Cigarette Report: International Best Practices- United Kingdom, New Zealand, France, and Canada" was released by the Property Rights Alliance. The report consists of four case studies conducted by Christopher Snowdon (Institute of Economic Affairs, United Kingdom), Louis Houlbrooke (New Zealand Taxpayers' Union), Patrick Coquart (France IREF), and Professor Ian Irvine (Concordia University, Canada), which confirmed the views held by public health experts.

The Asia-Pacific Coalition for Tobacco Harm Reduction (CAPHRA) has stated that countries that have taken a progressive approach to reducing tobacco harm have seen a significant decrease in smoking rates. Meanwhile, countries that have followed the World Health Organization's guidelines continue to experience excessive smoking-related illnesses and deaths.

Nancy Loucas, Coordinator of the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA), has said that it is fortunate that the release of this important data coincides with the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which held its infamous COP9 meeting last November. She stated, "Ultimately, this paper shows that the smoking rates of countries that have accepted e-cigarettes, such as France, the UK, New Zealand and Canada, are decreasing at twice the global average.

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